Bombay High Court seeks information on security provided to nuke scientists

The Asian Age: Mumbai: Saturday, June 27, 2015.

The Bombay high court on Friday asked the government of Maharashtra and the department of atomic energy to inform it within two weeks if proper security measures have been provided to nuclear scientists at their workplace.

The division bench of Justices V.M. Kanade and B.P. Colabawala sought this information in reply to a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking formation of a special investigating team (SIT) to probe the deaths of several nuclear scientists in suspicious circumstances.

Advocate Ashish Mehta, on behalf of social activist Chetan Kothari, had filed this PIL claiming that India was turning out to be a dangerous place to work for nuclear scientists.

The petition had contended that over the last few years, a number of India’s nuclear scientists had been dying under mysterious circumstances and the police is classifying these deaths either as ‘unexplained’ or ‘suicides’.

The judges observed that several decades ago many scientists had died because they were not provided with suits to protect them from nuclear radiation. “Does exposure to nuclear radiation cause cancer, which then leads to death?” asked Justice Kanade. The bench said it wanted to know if proper security measures have been provided to the scientists.

The court also observed that if something untoward were to happen in the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in Trombay, then would it impact the people of the city.

According to the PIL, the petitioner had sought information under the RTI in 2010 from the police and public information office, seeking a list of scientists and employees in BARC, who had committed suicide in the last 15 years. He was informed that five employees committed suicide.

It is claimed in the petition that Mr Kothari sought similar information from the Institute of Mathematical Science, Heavy Water Plant, Baroda and other important departments. He received information and from the data collected he is of the view that Indian nuclear scientists had not had an easy time for the past decade. The petition also claimed, “Our prestigious scientific community been plagued by ‘suicides’ and unexplained deaths but these deaths have mostly been ignored.”